She had me at "Brand Strategy"

If you know me, you probably already know how much interest I have in the creative strategy part of the design process and that all started during the start of my third year at university. We had a design symposium where past students came and spoke about what they're up to, where they work, the exciting projects they've been involved with and their experience as third-year students. There was one past student who really caught my attention. She opened my eyes to this whole new role that I had no idea existed. I went through university thinking, "Yeah, I'm going to be a graphic designer when I leave," because that's what I'm getting my degree in, right? We sometimes forget how broad the creative industry actually is, never mind just graphic design.

In the symposium, she mentioned brand strategy, where she had been interning during university, she explained what interested her, and the ideation process and I was amazed, "This is exactly what I want to do," I said to myself. Don't get me wrong designing is also fun but if there is someone out there who is better and more talented wouldn't you want them to do the job and let me do what I'm good at, something I can contribute more towards? I am a designer but I love breaking down the problem; the brief; the obstacle. The ideation stage of the design process, where the user is investigated, trends are researched, and a narrative is written is the exciting part for me personally. I can quickly get buried in it.

During the symposium, she gave us her recommendations to get into brand strategy (I'll list them at the bottom), so I started off with the first book, which I recently had time to read called Branding in Five And a Half Steps by Michael Johnson. The book was comprehensive and it explained what brand strategy is and what role it plays in the design process really well. I'm going to try and sum up what I learnt.

Firstly, the difference between a strategist and a designer. Strategists wield impenetrable charts, and proprietary methods, create slides and decks, and their job is to do all the research, get those trends, distil, and provide insight. Designers, interpret strategic ideas and bring the brand or a company to life (that will also make the client happy since they're always right, of course).

STEP 1: INVESTIGATE

This step can help identify the correct problems to solve.

Find out where you stand first, where could you be, where you want to be, and if you are strategically capable of getting there.

Audit your market's visual, verbal, behavioural, competition and peer elements. Identify past, present and wished-for future perceptions. Explore the market and identify potential gaps - one of the simplest approaches is to 'map' what's there already and then examine the gap. History can provide inspiration too!

Work out whether to follow sector norms or to stand out from the crowd.

STEP 2: STRATEGY & NARRATIVE

Your strategic and verbal approach is what glues your brand together and drives who, and what, you really are.

Define your brand with six questions and one statement:

Why are we here?

What do we do and how do we do it?

What makes us different?

Who are we here for?

What do we value the most?

What's our personality?

Our ambition, the long-term aim.

If you can't sum up your 'reason to be' in a few words, why should anyone listen to you or work for you? Without a strong verbal basis, a clear brand strategy and across-the-board agreement, a project is in danger and the visual work could be critically undermined before it had even begun.

"Strategy and brand are umbilically linked."

STEP 2.5: BRIDGING THE GAP

The blur between narrative and design can help, not hinder, the process.

Don’t completely lock down the narrative stage as you enter the design phase. Leave the final, final sign-off until a little later, just in case. Design discoveries can affect the narrative.

STEP 3: DESIGN

This step can make people, companies, and products famous the world over!

The Brief:

What key business challenge does the brand face?

Who are we trying to engage and what competes for their attention?

What is the role of communication?

Where and when will communication have the most power?

How does the category engage creatively and how can we challenge this?

The editing of multiple design routes becomes an exercise in not only finding what matches the brief best, but what also maps most appropriately onto a company's ambitions and future strategy.

The key ideas are the really disruptive ones that cut through, question convention, and change all our perceptions of what brands can do.

"No matter how many times your amazing, absolutely brilliant work is rejected by the client, for whatever dopey, arbitrary reason, there is often another amazing, absolutely brilliant solution possible. Sometimes it's even better." - Bob Gill.

STEP 4: IMPLEMENT

All verbal thinking and planning must be easily understood and used.

A good implementation plan is vital. Ideas can be introduced too fast. A quality brand manual should inspire its user to create good things, not lower their head in boredom and/or despair.

Consistency doesn’t mean doing everything the same way. Rather it means being recognisably the same while retaining flexibility.

STEP 5: ENGAGE & REVIVE

Either a new idea needs to be embedded into an organisation, or to give a new life to what's already there.

Make the participants part of the process.

Establish an authentic voice that customers believe in and that can be maintained. The verbal definition of a brand is as important to a brand as its visual representation.

Even the grooviest and most alluring brand identity can't paper over the cracks of a product that has no clear sense of why it should be here.

Branding alone cannot revive an undesirable product.

It's a very informative book, full of practical advice, creative inspiration, and helpful diagrams. It's particularly strong in integrating the verbal and visual elements of brand strategy. An essential and entertaining read, would recommend.

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books:

Branding in Five and a Half Steps by Michael Johnson

How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp

On Brand by Wally Olins

Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky

Pandeymonium: Piyush Pandey on Advertising

websites/newsletters:

SheSays

Kerning the Gap

podcasts:

On Strategy Showcase

Strategy Sheroes

[the above were recommended by the alumni who inspired me, I'm slowly going through her suggestions]